The  Churches  and  the  Crisis 

By  Edwin  D.  Mead. 

The  Church  is  admonished  to-day  as  never  before,  by  the 
awful  European  crisis,  of  its  high  and  fundamental  duty  to 
advance  the  supremacy  of  spiritual  forces  in  international  life. 
This  is  a  primary  dictate  of  our  religion.  The  vision  and 
injunction  of  the  Hebrew  prophet  was  that  nation  should  not 
lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  should  they  learn  war 
any  more.  The  heralding  of  Christ  was  as  the  bringer  of  a 
new  era  of  peace  and  good-will  among  men,  and  his  gospel 
was  that  of  universal  human  brotherhood.  The  message  of 
the  first  Christian  apostle  to  Europe  was  that  God  hath  made 
of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men.  The  time  has  come  for 
religious  men  to  take  these  mighty  principles  seriously  and  to 
make  their  influence  so  felt  in  the  organization  of  the  world 
that  their  operation  shall  not  cease  at  national  frontiers  nor 
be  subordinated  to  false  and  selfish  patriotisms. 

Our  religion  is  a  religion  of  peace  and  not  of  war;  and 
the  spectacle  presented  by  Christendom  to-day  is  an  appalling 
irony.  Above  all  nations  is  humanity ;  and  if  religion  and  the 
church  fail  to  instill  this  truth  in  every  nation,  they  fail  in  then- 
paramount  duty.  That  they  have  so  failed  in  mournful 
measure  is  the  solemn  witness  and  reproof  of  the  present 
European  crisis;  and  the  call  comes  to  religious  men  and 
women  everywhere  to  unite  in  a  worthier  conception  and  more 
definite  fulfillment  of  our  common  obligations. 

A  civilization  based  upon  materialism  and  heartless 
political  machinery,  instead  of  upon  trust  in  God  and  in  our 
brothers,  cannot  endure.  War  only  breeds  further  war;  and 
a  dominating  military  establishment  in  any  state  makes 


recourse  to  the  existing  instrumentalities  of  peace — and  these 
are  now  broad  and  varied — in  any  real  crisis  difficult  or 
impossible.  We  cannot  serve  at  once  the  god  of  war  and  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  The  awful  lesson  of  the  present  hour  is 
that  of  the  futility  of  force  as  the  final  appeal  of  nations  and 
of  reliance  on  great  armaments  as  preservers  of  peace.  These 
have  proved,  as  the  world’s  peace  party  has  persistently  fore¬ 
told,  and  as  the  caller  of  the  first  Hague  Peace  Conference  in 
his  call  pronounced  them,  the  world’s  chief  menace  rather  than 
defense ;  and  it  is  for  the  world’s  real  religion  now  to  inspire 
and  fortify  the  world’s  statesmanship  in  the  supplanting  of  the 
system  of  militarism  and  war  by  the  methods  of  justice  and 
reason  in  the  settlement  of  international  disputes. 

International  morality  must  henceforth  conform  to 
individual  morality.  Murder  and  pillage  do  not  cease  to  be 
such  when  committed  on  a  great  scale  by  great  powers. 
Governments,  like  citizens,  must  be  made  to  settle  their 
differences  not  in  battle  but  in  court.  The  present  inter¬ 
national  anarchy,  with  each  state  acting  as  a  law  unto  itself, 
regardless  of  the  common  welfare  and  of  common  rights, 
must  yield  to  international  order;  and  every  nation  must  be 
made  to  understand  that  when,  in  this  modern  interdependent 
world,  one  nation  declares  war  against  another  nation,  it 
declares  war  against  the  world.  War  is  an  anachronism  in 
this  twentieth  Christian  century,  unworthy  of  the  civilization 
which  we  have  actually  achieved  ;  and  the  common  sense  of 
men,  much  more  the  first  principles  of  religion,  demand  the 
immediate  supplanting  of  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword  by 
the  arbitrament  of  reason. 

The  true  defenses  of  nations  are  not  dynamite  and  dread¬ 
noughts,  but  justice  and  co-operation.  Friendship  and  for¬ 
bearance  are  not  only  nobler  but  stronger  than  defiance  and 
vengeance ;  and  it  is  true  to-day  as  ever  that  they  who  take  the 
sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword.  The  influence  of  religion 
and  the  churches  especially  should  be  exerted  in  the  promo¬ 
tion,  through  the  most  generous  use  of  national  resources,  of 


the  broadest  and  most  far-reaching  policies  which  inspire 
confidence  and  love  rather  than  the  present  exhausting  policies 
which  inspire  fear  and  prove  no  real  or  reliable  defense,  as  the 
voice  of  true  religion  has  ever  proclaimed.  The  world  is 
learning  at  frightful  cost  what  yoke  is  hardest  and  what 
burden  heaviest,  and  in  what  consist  the  true  shield  and  buckler 
of  states;  and  when  that  lesson  is  more  fully  learned,  peace 
budgets  will  grow  large  and  war  budgets  small,  and  secretaries 
of  peace  will  be  multiplied  and  magnified  in  every  Cabinet, 
where  to-day  the  war  function  still  holds  such  portentous 
place.  There  are  safety  and  salvation  for  the  nation  and  for 
the  family  of  nations  only  when  spiritual  forces  become 
sovereign  and  material  things  are  made  to  serve  instead  of 
to  master  men. 

Our  religion  has  not  been  rightly  brought  to  bear,  in 
faithfulness  to  its  clear  imperative,  in  the  creation  of  a 
fraternal  society  and  the  making  of  the  nations  of  this  world 
a  united  kingdom  of  God ;  and  to  that  unfulfilled  task  “God's 
people’’  are  summoned  at  this  critical  and  searching  juncture 
by  every  high  divine  and  human  call.  For  the  recognition  of 
this  duty  this  fateful  hour  makes  its  solmen  appeal  to  the 
churches  in  our  nation,  in  every  peaceful  and  neutral  nation, 
and  in  every  nation  now  at  war.  Many  heavy  and  yet  hopeful 
hearts  are  deeply  moved  by  the  conviction  that  some  direct  and 
earnest  message  to  the  religious  forces  among  the  warring 
peoples  might  light  some  lamp  in  the  thick  darkness  and  prove 
not  without  persuasive  and  compelling  power. 

In  accordance  with  these  principles,  confronting  the 
political  reconstruction  which  must  follow  the  war,  and  in 
which  every  nation,  and  especially  our  own  nation,  must  per¬ 
form  its  part,  our  churches  and  our  people  are  called  to  very 
distinct  and  definite  thought.  They  should  consider  earnestly 
their  duty  to  make  their  influence  speedily  and  powerfully  felt 
in  the  demands .  that  there  shall  be  no  more  appropriation  of 
territory  by  victors  in  war  ;  that  the  true  interest  and  desire 
of  the  inhabitants  of  every  territory  as  to  their  political 


relations  shall  be  respected  ;  that  there  shall  be  no  sowing  of 
the  seeds  of  revenge  and  future  war;  that  in  Europe  there 
shall  be  established  some  real  concert,  in  the  interest  of  real 
world  concert ;  that  the  private  manufacture  of  armaments  and 
all  vested  interests  in  war  shall  be  abolished;  that  no  loans 
nor  sale  of  war  material  shall  be  made  by  neutral  peoples  to 
belligerents;  that  the  control  of  foreign  policy  shall  be  made 
more  open  and  democratic  in  all  nations,  with  an  end  to  secret 
treaties  and  diplomacy ;  and  that  above  all  the  monstrous 
armaments,  which  are  so  largely  responsible  for  the  present 
catastrophe,  shall  be  drastically  reduced. 

Meantime,  let  not  our  own  nation,  safest  of  nations,  and 
never  so  safe  as  now,  be  betrayed  by  any  reaction,  hysteria  or 
false  fear,  or  by  the  insidious  militarist  agitation  to  push  false 
inferences  from  the  war  instead  of  its  true  and  urgent  lessons, 
into  temptation  to  intensify  here  the  very  evil  which  has 
wrought  such  ruin  in  Europe.  While  the  best  thinkers  and 
best  statesmen  there  are  aiming  to  make  the  war  itself  issue 
in  the  overthrow  of  the  whole  system  of  militarism  and  armed 
peace,  let  us  above  all  men  hold  up  their  hands.  Let  us 
bravely  lead  the  world  toward  the  supplanting  of  rival  national 
armies  and  navies  by  an  international  police;  let  us  labor  to 
extend  the  prevalence  and  scope  of  international  arbitration, 
mediation  and  commissions  of  inquiry ;  and  let  us,  fixing  our 
minds  upon  the  positive  policies  which  promise  a  better  order, 
co-operate  with  the  peace  workers  of  the  whole  world  to 
secure  for  the  next  Hague  Conference  the  broadest  and  most 
advanced  program  and  to  make  that  official  congress  of  the 
nations  a  truer  and  more  potent  Parliament  of  Man,  surely 
and  steadily  developing  a  peaceful  and  united  world.  This 
is  not  simply  international  politics ;  it  is  the  concern  of  all  who 
profess  that  God’s  will  should  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven. 


The  Church  Peace  Union 
70  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 


